Objectivity part 2

I’ve been recently listening to the Scene on Radio Season 5 podcast. The focus of the podcast has been about our climate crisis and exploration of how we got there in the early episodes. It’s amazing to me that as they explore notions on manifest destiny and the enlightenment that these building blocks are rarely spoken about and very influential in how we operate today.

With manifest destiny, it established the notion that America was destined by God to expand its domain, democracy, and capitalism. At the same time who was determined to be the people to do it and were considered to be American were white males. With the enlightenment people had a narrow focus on uplifting reason and rational / scientific thinking. When you think about the combination of the two you have people believing they are ordained by God and setting the terms of what is valid thought. Over the centuries and decades of this influence we now have these ways of thinking considered normal.

Think about how often we hear variations of American exceptionalism and politicians trying to convince us that we are perfect and above reproach. We often we hear that any talk to say otherwise is anti-American or with critical race theory we hear that it is anti-white. Take a look at what Governor DeSantis of Florida said, “We have the responsibility to stand for the truth, for what is right,” DeSantis said, adding that taxpayer dollars would not “be used to teach our kids to hate our country or to hate each other.” He added: “We also have to protect our people and our kids from some very pernicious ideologies that are trying to be forced upon them all across the country.” He is taking a claim to seek justice and have history taught with neutrality. What he is connecting to is the thought the if people have negative emotions from being taught history it must be biased.

However, whether you find out that people that look you were slaves or slave owners, having an emotional response is not unreasonable. Reacting in a way that shuts down emotions is a sign of emotional abuse. When you are in positions of power and filled with thoughts of manifest destiny and enlightenment you can think that you are protecting the right way to go about things and are being objective. However you may just well be reinforcing the following characteristics of objectivity.

• impatience with any thinking that does not appear ‘logical’ or ‘rational’ in ways that reinforce existing power structures; in other words, those in power can be illogical, angry, emotional without being disregarded while those without power must always present from a ‘rational’ position
• the belief that emotions are inherently destructive, irrational, and should not play a role in decision-making or group process
• refusal to acknowledge the ways in which ‘logical’ thinking and/or decision-making is often a cover for personal emotions and/or agendas often based in fear of losing power, face, or comfort